On Feb 21, 2006, at 10:47, Alberto Aguirre Jr wrote:
>
>
> I was recently told by a couple of people to put
> traction bars on my truck.
I was recently told by a couple people to "go take a hike" "jump off a
bridge" and a few other things.... =)
> A guy with a custom shop
> said not to. They dont help and I should use some old
> hot rodder trick with some sort of "ladder setup".
> Has anyone ever heard of this "ladder traction" trick
> and if so does it have advantages over traction bars?
My definition would be that traction bars are mounted to the axle, and
when the axle wraps they hit the spring forward of the axle and stop it
from wrapping much. Ladder bars mount to the axle and to the frame.
Ideally the frame connection is in line or extremely close to the front
eyes of the leaf springs, and the rear of the bar then mounts to two
points on the axle so that when the axle wraps the bar tries to move.
Since the bar is mounted to the frame, it can't move up and the axle
doesn't wrap. A far better solution in my opinion, and in my world
(though probably much heavier than traction bars could be made to be).
Since the axle will still move fore and aft a bit as the springs
compress and extend (the axle goes back as the springs flatten, comes
forward as they droop and arch further) the ladder bar's frame
connection need to be a shackle if hard mounts are used. With the sort
of travel a 2 wheel drive truck's rearend usually sees I wouldn't feel
bad running a solid mount on the frame and bushings at all three points
as long as all mounts were strong and solid. with the shakle setup
you're not going to affect your suspension geometry other than killing
the axle wrap. with the solid mount/bushing setup, if you ran one on
each side, I'd wager it would feel very similar to a rear anti-sway
bar.
These ladder bars are really more a part of a complete 5 link
suspension but they'll give you an idea what they are.
<http://www.artmorrison.com/ampics/22a.jpg>
> Do traction bars even help or can they be harmful?
unless you're dragging them on the ground (or car was rails) I can't
imagine they'd be harmful. of course they'll also affect your spring
rate when they hit, so your handling will be different, and less
consistant than with ladder bars.
> I
> wanted to drop the truck in the rear using the common
> drop blocks. Someone else said that if I want to use
> traction bars I need to use shackles to alter the
> place where leaf springs connect to frame in rear as
> opposed to blocks raising the differential off of the
> leaf springs, and I guess lowering my ground clearance
> by bring the bottom of the Ubolt assembly closer to
> the ground.
yup, if you drop a spring-under live axle with blocks, your spring
plates get nice and close to the dirt and wouldn't leave room for
traction bars.
>
> What opinions, concerns or suggestions do you guys
> have concerning this?
depends on whether YOU think you need to limit your axle wrap. if it's
minor, give a Road Master active suspension setup a try. it'll firm up
the back half of the leaf and help your warp a bit. if you wanna look
cool, get traction bars. if you want something more hidden and more
effective and probably slightly more expensive (unless you can fab it
yourself) do ladder bars.
-- +-- Mike Maskalans ---------------- Rochester, NY ----------+ | '98 Dakota CC, SAS on 40s '84 RamCharger 4x4, plow truck | | '02 Jetta TDI 5sp, daily '97 Intrepid, not on the road | +-------------------- <http://mike.tepidcola.com/trucks/> --+. . .------------------------------------------------------------------. | Make your plans NOW to attend the National DML Meet in Colorado! | | Date: July 15-23, 2006 - More info: http://meet.dakota-truck.net | `------------------------------------------------------------------'
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Mar 20 2006 - 10:38:59 EST
